Soul Seeker
by FrozenInsanity
Summary: Rima's younger sister has come to Cross Academy, demanding Rima accept her future and leave altogether. One thing stopping her. She's in love with Shiki. What will she decide? Re-writing.


**WHASAP? :D**

**HeyThere, come here often? … 'Course you do. ;o **

**Anyway, here is I presenting my re-written story, 'Soul Seeker'. **

**This will be exactly the same story-line, as you well know (I hope), and I plead you'll stay with me 'till the very end3. **

**Onwards we go, my little Vein-Munchers. o3o Also, if you're good, a lemon will be involved later on. ;3**

**~NadiineNightMare;o. **

Rima Toya sat, as vampires did, in her chair as elegantly as possible without any effort whatsoever. Her copybook lay open in front of her, the pages crisp and clean, not a single word written anywhere – except for the back, of course, which was reserved for X's and O's with Shiki Senri, her best friend. At present, he slumped with the same grace in his uncomfortable chair, eyes drowsily blinking every so often. Rima suppressed a giggle several tired moments later when Shiki's head dropped forward, indicating he was either over-tired or just being lazy. Suddenly, as though spoken from the greatest God, the elder vampire dressed in an impeccable suit-and-tie said plainly but rather painfully loudly, ''Class dismissed,'' then gathered his papers and exited the dangerous classroom that emanated a warning aura.

Shiki stretched, or pretended to from the gleaming twinkle in his eye, slipped a hand into Rima's skirt pocket and produced a box of milk-chocolate pocky. He looked at the box in mild disappointment as Rima snatched it back, a not-very-genuine scowl curving her lips. His eyes lifted to hers, sparkling like ice in the moonlight, and an electric jolt shivered through her, humming with light. Rima's sapphire pools widened ever so lightly, the scowl replaced by a small and uncommon smile.

''What?'' she asked, popping the top of the box open. ''Don't you want some?''

''Yeah,'' he said, frowning, ''but it's milk-chocolate. I thought I smelt strawberry.''

Rima rolled her eyes at his typical churlishness and slipped a single biscuit treat from the box, wedged it between her lips and bit into it. Shiki grumbled something that Rima intentionally ignored and took three sticks of pocky himself and bit them all in half. Rima stared, bemused at his behaviour. Funny.

''Ah, ah, Ruka!'' Aido's voice cried out in distress. Eyes turned to plant on the standing pair, scrabbling like children. Ruka's mouth was twisted into a sneer as Aido's cheeks flushed a light pink. In her hand, she held a book with some charcoal drawings inside (didn't he know of the invention of pencils?), and looked at them, sniggering. ''I didn't know you had a hand for art, Hanabusa,'' she said delightedly. Aido was suddenly speechless and continued his struggle for his book. Rima and Shiki in simultaneous timing said as Ichijou stood by their desk, ''Shouldn't you stop them?''

He gave a nervous laugh and asked, eyes bright once again, ''Why?''

''Because someone's going to get hurt,'' Shiki said quietly, distantly but with no malice present.

''And it won't be Ruka,'' added Rima in the same tone.

Then a deathly silence fell upon the classroom – not its usual kind of serene silence – this was completely different, and then a menacing aura entered the room, and Rima's sapphire eyes with their thick lashes widened. A petite girl, resembling that of a china doll figurine, stood in the doorway, light from the corridor spilling around her, silhouetting her in the gloomy shadows of the classroom. A mass of black curls hung about her and eyes filled with liquid topaz gleamed brightly from her deathly-pale face. Her night class uniform hung from her willowy frame but she looked dangerous, no matter what the angle. Rima's breath caught like a knife in her windpipe and she tried not to splutter, seriously not wanting the attention of that _thing _that stood there, glowering cowardly in the light.

She coughed daintily into her hand, a smile gracing her lips gently.

''Hello. Rima Toya is in this class, am I correct?''

Her voice cut clean through the silence like a warm knife through butter. Shiki next to Rima shuddered and stared at the rising vampire with utmost surprise and anxiousness. He took her hand by impulse, and Rima stopped, turned and blinked. In her eyes held a sentence that she was growing too accustomed to using lately: _Let me go, we'll talk about it later. _He never realised how much he really _hated _that sentence until his best friend started putting things like this before him. Shiki had noticed, that for the past few weeks, Rima had been on the phone to her mother an awful lot, yelling, whispering, begging and sometimes even crying.

He had only heard Rima cry once before in his whole life. _Once_: when her father had died from a car accident. But, why now? Who was this little girl? Why did she want to talk to Rima? Questions buzzed and whirred within his over-active mind, the evening's previous drowsiness fading quickly. He finally, with great reluctance, let her ice-cold hand go. As he watched her pop down the steps to the little girl, he clenched his fist. _Rima's palm had been clammy. She's worried. _Kaname's scent suddenly wafted to Shiki's nose, and the grey eyed vampire jumped, startled. He looked behind him to see Kaname-sama standing there staring after the vampires that had exited the room with a thoughtful expression on his face. His eyes emanated a dull red glow, and Shiki looked away, then wordlessly began to eat more of Rima's pocky.

''What?'' was the first word that left Rima's mouth, annoyance clearly evident in the single word. The little girl's eyes widened, an expression that held only mockery set upon her porcelain-like face.

''What do you mean, 'What'?'' she asked. ''I think you do mean to rephrase that, 'Why', idiot girl.''

''Don't talk to me like that,'' Rima murmured, very quietly, very darkly, poison seeping through her tone. Her eyes flashed silver, but if it was only the light, the young girl didn't notice.

''I shall communicate with you by whichever means I please, sister.'' The china-doll, who went by the name Alexia Toya, grinned manically and Rima took an unconscious step away from the glowering creature. _Sister… _Rima had never thought of Alexia as her sister, actually – since they never played together, never had heart-to-heart conversations, never really talked, why should she have thought of the little thing that way? True, once there had been a time when Rima could have honestly said she loved Alexia, but that time was long gone because the little sister she had known then was nothing like the one she knew now. The little vampire, in her transformation into this thing she now was, had been thoroughly destroyed and couldn't be salvaged in any way that would be humane – sadly.

Rima, in a futile attempt to be reasonable, turned her back on Alexia, and entered the classroom. The hum of talking evapourated from the misty air as she continued her journey to her seat on the fourth raised platform and she sunk into her seat next to Shiki. He stared at her a while; a long, unwavering while in which she felt slightly tempted to turn and snap. But she didn't. She waited a moment before turning to him, and looking to his hands. Her box of pocky lay in his lap. She snatched it up and stared into it, bemused.

''You ate all of it,'' she said slowly. ''Now you owe me a box.''

''No,'' he protested, and pointed to the open box once again. ''I left you one; see?''

She simply sent him a bemused stare, her calm mask not yet showing cracks. He and Rima then rose simultaneously and exited the classroom, and they along with all other students poured into the shadowed corridor of Cross academy and then out into the frosty oncoming sunrise air. Lurking shadows still loomed in cornered places, wickedly staring at the vampires, longing for them. Rima glanced around and hurried up her pace to keep up with Shiki until they fell into step. Vampires behind them were walking quicker, and so, were inside the great marble-built dorm before the two sauntering figures. Shiki reached, stretched, for the golden handle and pulled the door open, and Rima walked in, batting her eyelashes in a flirty thank you.

A cold rush of air burst at her back and the creak from the giant door itched her ears, but then the world fell away – Shiki's cold yet soft hand caught her wrist and gravity didn't exist for a moment as her frail body was pulled into his tall frame. His arms snaked around her, and she felt a sudden longing for him. Her head swam, she felt cold. Her eyes were drifting, serene in Shiki's embrace.

''Rima, I need…'' His voice continued, asking, pleading, but Rima couldn't hear him. His warmth concealed her words, his lips brushing her neck causing her voice to disappear. She was lost.

''Yes,'' she said softly, and arched into him. ''Yes.'' And she felt the soft brush of his lips on her neck once again, then the sharp flaring pain as his fangs pierced her pale, warm skin. Rima's body was suddenly drained of all its energy as Shiki's mouth moved softly on her neck, his warm hands on her hips, as her hands fluttered uncertainly at her sides, clammy against the cold air. His russet coloured hair brushed softly against her face, and she reached a hand up to smooth out its unruly order, but it simply flourished back into a mess. She ran her slim fingers through it, tugging weak tangles from it. Suddenly, a horrid drowsiness took her over, and she felt ill. Her mind soared and her body was left behind as panic flooded her senses.

''Rima…''

She heard her name being called.

''Rima, I'm going to put you to bed now, okay?'' She felt her body then, only slightly, but it was weightless a moment, then supported and incredulously warm. She felt safe as her mind returned to her, and her senses were in immediate overdrive; she was hyper. But that succumbed after a minute or two, and she was tired. Not even hungry, just exhausted, and she closed her eyes. Maybe she could sleep in Shiki's arms for a moment.

Just a moment.


End file.
